Better Places
by Fallen Ark Angel
Summary: If when you die, you get to choose where you end up, Lucy would definitely choose to be right where she is right now. Even if it's forever. Especially if it's forever. - One-shot, set in the Remember Me Universe.


The little pink haired girl hummed softly as she pressed her face against the cool glass of the window, watching all the fields and random houses pass with interest. Her mother sat beside her, not nearly as interested, as she flipped absently through a magazine. She was far more worried over the two children that weren't accompanying them on the journey than she was the one beside her. They were staying behind at home, with their father and Happy, and while she didn't think they were in any danger, she'd found leaving the twins alone with almost anyone could make her a bit antsy.

But it was only for the day.

"Do you think it'll be much longer?' her daughter asked, face still pressed to the window. "Mom?"

"Mmmm, not much, no, Navi," Lucy sighed as she glanced over at her. "I thought you liked riding on the train?"

"A lot more than I do with Dad," the little girl admitted. "You don't whine the whole time."

Giggling some, Lucy nodded before saying, "He'd hate to hear you say that though."

"It's true."

"I'm glad that you wanted to come with me, anyways," the woman went on. "I thought for sure you'd wanna stay home with Natsu. It'll be a long time till he and Happy can get away from taking as many jobs as they have been recently."

"I know," she said with a nod of her head. "But I wanted to come. I like going here. It's nice."

"That's one way to think about it."

"Don't you like coming?"

That brought her mother some pause and, with a bit of a sigh, she whispered, "Yeah, Navi. Of course I do."

"It's kind of sad too though," the little girl admitted softly as, finally, she looked away from the scenery and to her mother. Staring up at the woman, she said, "And Happy told me to be careful."

"Be careful of what?"

"Of ghosts."

"Oh, he did, did he?" And Lucy made a bit of a face at that, but Navi only grinned.

"I think he was just jealous that he had to stay home with the babies," she said. "While I get to go out on an adventure."

"Not much of an adventure though," Lucy sighed. "We'll be heading back home soon enough. We'll only stay a few minutes."

"I know," Navi agreed with a nod. "I just can't wait to get there."

When they did, Navi led her mother through the town they arrived in, gripping tightly to her hand as she tugged the woman along. She took her to their usual floral shop where they purchased two bouquets of flowers and then, leading her by heart though the city she only visited on rare occasions, to the local cemetery.

The second they were at the graveyard gates, however, she came to an abrupt stop, tightening her hold on her mother's hand.

"Come on, sweetheart," Lucy whispered after a moment as she was the one then that pulled her along. "Let's go see them."

They walked along the paths through the many headstones until they arrived at a set in particular. Once there, Navi dropped Lucy's hand immediately and moved to take the bouquets from her mother. Bowing deeply, she laid them on the graves of her fallen grandparents, keeping silent as she read the text across each stone.

As she straightened, she felt her mother pat her gently on the head and, glancing up at the woman, she asked, "Does it make you sad that they're so far away from you? When you're at home in Magnolia?"

"No," Lucy told her truthfully, but softly as she stroked at her daughter's rosy locks. "They're not really here, you know, Navi."

"You don't think so?"

"Do you?"

That gave her some pause and, silently, Navi considered this. She didn't know anyone dead. Not really. She knew of the dead, such as her grandparents that lied before her, but never had someone from her life as she remembered it cease to exist. For a child in a mage guild, this was bound to change sooner or later, but so far, she'd been rather lucky in that regard.

So she had little thoughts in regard to those sorts of things. Death was certainly a function of life and she knew it by proxy, but its heavy hand had never laid so much as a finger on her life and, therefore, she thought it never could. Why think about things that you never believed could ever occur?

She took after her father in that regard.

Still, whenever they were at the cemetery where her mother's parents were buried, Navi found a weird not would form in her stomach and she was rarely able to get it to dissipate. She didn't know a lot about the pair together, but she did know a lot about her grandmother on her own. Lucy had many stories of her mother that she loved to share with her own daughter. She knew many of them by heart and cherished them herself, like you might a childhood book that was read to you many times. She could almost picture them in her own head, the actions and voice of her grandmother, and sometimes even what it would have been like to meet the woman.

Her grandfather, however, this was far from the case.

Though Lucy had long resolved any issues that she had with her father throughout her adolescence, the subject of his presence in her life was far more a sore one when compared to her mother. Navi knew more about him now that her brother, Jude, had been given his name as her mother seemed more open to talking about it, but if the fact that her brother had already gotten a nickname (Lucky) and was rarely called this by her mother meant anything, not much was ever going to be shared on the man.

Still, three or four times a year, Navi found herself where she was at the moment, before the graves of her mother's parents, where they'd hardly spend the time worth traveling down there, but just enough for her mother to get her bearings once more, it seemed, before heading back home.

When she was younger, Natsu would come with them. And Happy. Recently though, he'd been taking more and more jobs, to stay afloat as Lucy cared for their twins, and just didn't have time to. Not that Lucy seemed to mind.

"There will be something nice about it, I guess," she sighed that morning as she got ready to head out. She had one of the baby's in her arms, trying to calm him a bit as she stood over at the stove, getting breakfast ready for everyone.

"I'd offer to go, Lucy," Happy said from the table where he awaited his meal. "But you know someone has to stay with Natsu. Someone responsible. To make sure nothing happens to Lucky and Iggy."

"And you're that person?" For some reason, she sounded doubtful.

"I'm that feline."

"Awe, Hap, come on," Natsu complained from where he rested his head on the table, watching Lucy cook absently. "I'm getting way better at helping out. Don't you think, Luce?"

"I mean-"

"What about me?" Navi asked as she looked away from where she was helping feed the other baby some mushy stuff as he sat in his high chair, mostly rejecting the help (he'd much rather smear it all over his face than eat it, thanks). "I'm still going, aren't I?"

"Oh, Navi, did you want to?" Lucy asked with a glance over her. "You don't have to, sweetie. I'm fine alone."

"It's how she belongs," Happy added with a snicker, getting the reward of a glare from Lucy.

"I like going," her daughter insisted and, turning his head to the other side so that he could stare at his daughter, Natsu didn't raise it as he spoke.

"Really, Navi?" he asked with a bit of a frown. "You don't wanna stay here and play with us?"

With the two little brothers that she mostly still found annoy and who would only eat up his attention?

Yeah, that was a definite no.

"I would rather go with Mom," she said and, for the first time, Lucy heard such a thing from her daughter and it was the best feeling.

"Whatever," Natsu tsked as he went back to watching his wife make his food. "We'll just have a better time without you, Nav."

"It's not like going to a graveyard is supposed to be fun, you know," Happy told Natsu with a bit of a frown. As, finally, Lucy went to drop the baby in her arms in his own highchair before bringing a big plate of eggs over to the table, the cat only rubbed his furry paws excitedly. Still, to the slayer he managed to say, "You gotta be respectful and remorseful."

But when Lucy headed out of the room to change one of the boys, Happy was quick to add a few things to this.

"Plus," he said then, directing his words towards Navi, "you have to watch out for ghosts."

"Ghosts?"

"Yeah, ghosts."

"Happy, I've gone with Mom a lot and I've never seen ghosts."

"That's how they trick you," the cat told her with a nod of his head. "They make you think that they're not there. That you're safe. It can go on for years, even. Then, when you least expect it-"

"Hap, why are you filling her head with that sorta stuff?" Natsu took a moment out from scarfing down most of the food that his wife had made just to grin over at his daughter. "When you know it's the ghouls you really have to worry about?"

Navi only made a face at them though, continuing to feed her younger brother. "I'm not afraid. Mom's mom and dad wouldn't hurt me anyways."

"Maybe," Happy added as Lucy was coming back and he decided to drop the whole thing, "they aren't the ones that you have to worry about."

As she stood there though in the late afternoon light, Navi didn't feel any fear over what might be lurking in the coming shadows from the many trees scattered about.

"I dunno," she answered her mother's question then softly, eyes staring at the headstones before them. "If they were, I guess you'd be able to sense them, right? Since you knew them?"

"I guess I would."

"But you don't," Navi finished with a bit of a frown. "But where else could they be?" Actually, she had never considered such a thing and then found herself asking her mother, "Where do you go when you die? If you just don't stay where you're buried?'

For a moment, Lucy was silent before telling her, "Some people think you go to a better place. If you're a good person. And a bad place, if you were a bad one. Then other people think you just cease to exist, all together."

"I like the sound of the first one a lot better."

"A lot of people do."

"Do you think that they're in a better place?"

That time her mother sighed a bit and seemed to be looking past the grave site. Not looking at Navi, Lucy whispered, "Yeah. I do."

"I bet you get to pick your better place. Don't you? So that it's for sure better?'

"I dunno, Navi."

"My better place would be with you and Dad." Finished, it seemed, with her reverence, Navi bounced a bit as she took her mother's hand. "And Happy. On a job. Forever."

"Would it?" Lucy asked as, with a far deeper sigh then, she turned to lead her daughter back through the maze of gravestones. "What about your brothers?"

She didn't want to tell her mother that they weren't exactly included in her better place, but found a way around that as she said, "They're too small to go out on jobs right now. So if I died right now, they couldn't be in my better-"

"Navi, don't say stuff like that."

"How come?"

"Just don't."

"It's true."

"Nav-"

"What's your better place?" Not wishing to be scolded, the girl found the best solution was to just change the subject. "Mom?"

That caused her some pause and, with a shake of her head, Lucy said, "The same as you."

"But with the boys?"

"With the boys."

"Do you really like jobs that much though?" Navi asked. "As much as me?"

"I like them just as much, if not more."

"If you're so sure."

"I am."

Navi glanced up at her mother then and, with a giggle, only squeezed her hand some. This got Lucy to glance down at her, but she only returned her smile easily, her eyes hardly watering at all.

They stopped off for a nice meal without any dirty diapers, belching slayers, or greedy felines before they went back. Lucy let Navi order anything she wanted and even split a piece of cake with her for dessert.

It was while she was being just as greedy as Happy and hardly allowing her mother any of the piece that it happened. Navi was busy eating as much of the frosting as she could when she noticed her mother not even trying to get any of the cake at all. She was only sit there, staring at her with glassy eyes.

"Mom?" the little girl asked with a frown as she stared right back at the woman. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing. I just..." Shaking her head a bit, she told her daughter then, "You know, I was your age when my mother got sick and died."

"Really?"

"Uh-huh."

"What'd she get sick from?"

"Nothing that you have to worry about," she assured her daughter. "I was thinking, though, about how different both our lives were, at this age, and how glad I am that yours is so much better."

Navi, who knew that her mother lived in a huge mansion on a sprawling property that she imagined her having no doubt countless adventures on, only made a bit of a face at the idea. She had to live in a cramped apartment with a father, mother, twin brothers, and a Happy.

One sounded much better than the other.

Except…

Well, if they lived in a huge mansion, she probably wouldn't get to share a bed with Happy.

And she probably wouldn't get to go out on so many jobs with her dad, considering they would be super rich and not need to.

And she liked living in Magnolia. Where the guild was. Where her friends were.

Maybe her mother wasn't wrong.

Maybe.

"Instead of questioning any of that though, Navi's eyes only fell down to the cake before, pushing the rest of it towards her mother, she said, "I'm sorry that your mom died."

"You don't have to be sorry." And Lucy pushed the cake right back. "Everything happens for a reason, you know. If she'd lived...everything would have changed. I might have never met Natsu. Or joined Fairy Tail. And then you wouldn't be here. So don't ever feel sorry for something that you had no control over. Because I'm not."

Still, Navi didn't touch the rest of the cake as she said, "I bet that your mom and dad's better place would be with you. Like how yours is with me."

That made Lucy laugh softly, just a bit, before saying, "I bet it's with you."

"They don't know me."

"But if they did, that's what they would want."

"Do you think that maybe...maybe we could all be together?" she asked then. "When we all go to our better places?"

"Yeah, Nav. I bet we can."

It was with a giggle that Lucy finally reached over and tried a bit of the cake herself and, deeming it too sweet, let Navi have the rest.

When they left the town on the last train out, Navi didn't find as much enjoyment in the darkened surroundings as she had when things were light. Instead, she only snuggled up against her mother's side and snoozed on the way back while Lucy stroked at her hair and thought of all the disarray they'd probably find the guys in when they arrived back home.

She imagined a lot.

Still, Lucy decided as it was her turn to stare out the window and watch the world pass them by, she wouldn't have traded her afternoon with Navi.

Not for the world.


End file.
